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Dragonwyck QUOTES

Dragonwyck QUOTES

1 " Miranda looked up at him through a haze of desire, her will consumed by a fierce crackling heat, just like the dry twigs of the old woman's fire. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

2 " Miranda was shocked to hear Nicholas speak of slavery in glowing terms, as an efficient agricultural system. This wasn't the South! Yet as she surveyed her employer's strong dark profile in secret from beneath her long lashes, she was forced to conclude that the role of master suited Nicholas Van Ryn perfectly. Even when she closed her eyes, the impression of cruelty and power remained. But it was herself she saw as the darky slave, stripped of her free will and trembling at her master's approach. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

3 " Her lips were drawn to his like a moth to a flame. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

4 " He was all sin and mystery, and Miranda feared the pleasures he offered as she feared the fires of hell. Yet when she succumbed at last, it was not because her body was weak but because her mind was curious. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

5 " He wasn't strong. He was weak. The weakest thing in the world. A man who lives only for himself "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

6 " Her body consented willingly to all that her soul found most abhorrent. As Nicholas had promised, there was a hellish delight in knowing she was damned. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

7 " in that hushed hour between midnight and dawn when Morpheus’ sable hands touch the rosy finger tips of Aurora and even the fairies are slumbering on their flowery couches, "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

8 " Look, bimba—In my country we have a—how you say?—a proverb. Amare, cantare, mangiare.—Loving, singing, eating—these are God’s three gifts. You don’ need more. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

9 " I guess every disaster, every tragedy in the world, my lad, is caused by someone’s selfishness and refusal to recognize the rights of others. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

10 " God's will usually seemed to coincide with her father's, and against this partnership there was no hope of appeal. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

11 " all cruelty and passion must burn away at last to leave behind them only pity. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

12 " She had not, as yet, enough introspection to realize that part of his fascination for her had arisen from his unpredictability, and her conception of him as a mysterious being from a superior world who had miraculously condescended to desire her. Nor did she realize how tightly she was enmeshed by his physical attraction, a bondage woven not only from the magnetism of his body but from the very fear and pain he caused her "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

13 " How can he be so cruel to me at times—and then like this? she thought. And again her awakening perceptions gave her the answer. He would hurt her himself, take pleasure in doing so, but he would not allow her to be injured by anyone or anything else "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

14 " And the night shall be filled with music,         And the cares that infest the day Shall fold their tents like the Arabs,         And as silently steal away. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

15 " You’ve read some of my stuff?” he asked eagerly, adding with bitterness, “ ‘The Raven,’ I suppose. Such fame as I have appears to rest entirely on the plumage of that gloomy bird. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

16 " Miranda was curled up against the wall, her pink calico skirts bunched carelessly above her knees in uncharacteristic abandon. A green measuring worm inched himself unchecked across the smooth bodice of her dress. The May breeze, fragrant with apple-blossoms and clover from the adjacent pasture, blew her loosened hair into her eyes. She pushed the strand back impatiently with one hand while the other clutched her book, as Miranda devoured the fascinating pages of The Beautiful Adulteress.
So compelling were the beautiful adulteress's adventures, that even when Miranda's sunbonnet slipped off and hot sunshine fell through the elm trees onto her skin, she did not pause to replace the bonnet. And yet the transparent whiteness of that skin was the envy of her friends and part product of many a tedious treatment with buttermilk and cucumber poultices. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

17 " They drove up Third Avenue so that they might see the famous Stuyvesant pear tree on the corner of Thirteenth Street. Again for the two hundredth time its ancient boughs were loaded with blossoms. How strange it was that it could go on renewing itself in exquisite youth, when the hands that had planted it had so long ago fallen to dust! "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

18 " It was Nicholas' pride to have one example of every tree which could be grown in that locality, and many of these he had imported by schooner from Europe and the Orient straight to the Dragonwyck dock- the Incense Cedar, the Weeping Cypress, the Judas Tree, the Gingko with its fan-shaped leaves, and the delicate bronze Japanese Maple- these were hardly enough to live outside; but the palms and aloes, the oleanders and the orchids, grew in the elaborate greenhouses or in the conservatory off the dinging-room. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

19 " Suddenly, in unconscious response to the steadiness of Nicholas' gaze, she raised her eyelids and looked full at him. A shock ran through her. Her heart beat in slow thick strokes. They looked across the room into each other's eyes for half a second only, then Nicholas', turning to the Countess, said smoothly: 'Ah, that is the most interesting, madame. Tell me more about your little blaise.' But Miranda knew that for all the triviality of the incident something cataclysmic had occurred. Their relationship had changed and from this point there could be no going back. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck

20 " A Tropic flower cannot live without sun. A soul cannot live without love. "

― Anya Seton , Dragonwyck